The present invention relates generally to efficiently capturing information from data processing system user interfaces, and more particularly, to automatically preventing redundant information capture actions from data processing system user interfaces (e.g. preventing redundant browsing, printing, clipping, downloading, creating of shortcuts, or other information capture actions).
Internet connectivity has quickly become a tool for researching all kinds of information. Many people use the internet in place of encyclopedias and other hard copy sources of information. The internet is growing explosively with abundance of information, and provides open access of the information. The same links, or same documents, are often referenced from different web sites. One browser method for automatically indicating to a user that the link has already been visited is to highlight the link in a different color. However, the links of referencing pages are highlighted rather than notifying the user when a previously visited page is in focus. Only the referencing pages have highlighted links. Web browsers, for example the Microsoft Internet Explorer (Microsoft and Internet Explorer are trademarks of Microsoft corporation) or the Netscape Navigator (Netscape and Navigator are registered trademarks of Netscape corporation, now owned by America Online (America Online is a trademark of American Online corporation)), maintain history information of which web site/page address (i.e. Uniform Resource,Locator (URL) address) the user has transposed to. This enables highlighting links containing matching addresses. In the case of the Microsoft Internet Explorer, the history information also enables users to browse previously visited addresses, add previously visited addresses to a xe2x80x9cFavoritesxe2x80x9d folder, or transpose to a previously visited address with a simple mouse invocation. The history information is a useable record of where the user has been. There is no method of using the history information for automatic detection of redundancy in print actions, download actions, clipboard actions, save actions, short cut actions, or visit actions when the visited page is to be focused. The xe2x80x9cFavoritesxe2x80x9d folder maintains short cuts to visited addresses for convenient future selection to transpose to the address. The Microsoft Internet Explorer does detect a duplicate short cut creation action if a duplicate is found in the xe2x80x9cFavoritesxe2x80x9d folder, but this duplicate detection is only upon interfacing directly with the xe2x80x9cFavoritesxe2x80x9d folder interface, and is not a system wide or even application wide implementation, for example, to copy short cuts to another folder (but of the scope of xe2x80x9cFavoritesxe2x80x9d), or to the user""s desktop. The history information is not used at all for the duplicate detection. Presence in the xe2x80x9cFavoritesxe2x80x9d folder dictates duplication. Right mouse click repeatedly on the same web address page for a short cut copy to a user""s desktop, and the short cut will be copied multiple times without any redundancy notification processing.
Also, if a user prints one or more pages of interest, there is no method for conveniently indicating that the page(s) were printed. Having such an indication would prevent the user from redundantly printing the page(s) again. Relying on human memory after printing many pages from different web sites may be difficult. While the user may browse history information of web pages visited, it is tedious to figure out what was printed from which of the web pages.
A user who surfs the internet may also right mouse click on an image to save a local copy of the image file. There is no convenient method for knowing if the image has already been saved should a user save many image files. Currently, the image file name uniqueness in a specified target directory is all that allows detecting redundancy. If the user puts the image file in another directory, or different web sites use the same file name for different files, then file name uniqueness does not provide an adequate redundancy check when the user goes to save the file.
A user may clip information from a current user interface context. The information can then be printed, pasted to a saved file, or used as the user sees fit to use the captured information. The user may be faced with determining whether or not the information has been previously clipped and used. An automated method is needed for determining if clips are redundant.
A user may also choose to download a file such as an executable program, zip file, documentation file, video file, audio file, or any other file for download from the internet. There needs to be a method for determining redundancy while minimizing user interface actions. Manually browsing history information, or logs, through other options in the user interface is inconvenient. It is desirable to notify the user of a redundant information capture action automatically upon the user performing the, action. Preventing the user from manually browsing external historical information sources is desirable.
Users also create short cuts to web sites and place them on their desktop or in certain folders. A method is needed for eliminating the problem of accidentally creating multiple short cuts to the same place, program, or file.
Thus, information capture actions include browsing information in user interface contexts (e.g. web page visits), printing information, downloading information, clipboard clipping information, saving information, copying shortcuts to information, or other information capture actions. Information capture actions all have the same objective of capturing information for the user. For user interface efficiency, and for maximizing productivity, information capture actions need an associated convenient automated method for alerting the user when a redundant action is taking place.
The present invention is a system and method for enabling a user to efficiently capture information from a data processing system user interface. A user performs information capture actions (ICAs) such as browsing user interfaces (e.g. internet web site/page visits), printing information, downloading information, clipping information to a clipboard, saving information, creating shortcuts, or other information capture actions. The user""s data processing system use is monitored for information capture actions (ICAs) according to configurable tracking variables. Upon user invocation of a monitored information capture action (ICA), determination is atomatically made if the action is redundant. If the information capture action (ICA) is determined to be redundant (i.e. repeated), then a configurable alert is provided to the user. If the information capture action is determined to not be redundant, then the information capture action is permitted to continue and proceeds in the conventional manner.
In the preferred embodiment, ICAs are maintained to redundancy determination history information (RDHI). A user invoked ICA is automatically compared to the previously performed ICAs maintained in the redundancy determination history information (RDHI). If a match is found, then the ICA is determined to be redundant. A match is configurably determined by the ICA being equivalent to a previously performed ICA, a subset to a previously performed ICA, or a superset to a previously performed ICA. An alert provided is user configurable for including an audible notification with automatic cancellation of the ICA, a visual notification with automatic cancellation of the ICA, or a prompt with user reconciliation required. User configurable tracking variables enable, or disable, which ICAs are to be monitored. The user also has full control over managing RDHI for enabling/disabling the historical collection of ICAs, saving RDHI to a file, setting RDHI from a file, or clearing history.
It is one advantage of the present invention in enabling a user to very quickly capture information from a data processing system user interface while at the same time eliminating redundant information captures. For example, a user surfs the internet for a subject matter and prints out web pages, and references thereof, that are desirable. Often, the same material is linked from different web sites, or different contexts from the same web site. The user may not remember if a document was already printed. The present invention automatically notifies the user when the document has already been printed so the user will prevent repeating the print.
Another advantage of the present invention is that an ICA can be made non-repeatable so that a user is not forced to rely on human memory for whether or not the action was already performed. Information capture actions of a user include browsing user interfaces contexts, printing information (e.g. documents, web pages, or the like), downloading information (e.g. files, executables, pictures, videos, or the like), clipping information (text, windows, graphics, application controls, or combinations thereof) to a clipboard, saving information, creating shortcuts, or other like ICAs.
A further advantage of the present invention is that RDHI collected for invoked ICAs can be configured by a user for any historical time window of ICAS. The user may save RDHI to a user named file for later use. The user may replace the active RDHI with a previously saved RDHI file. The user may append previously saved RDHI to the active RDHI. The user may also clear the active RDHI. Thus, the user is able to affect redundancy determination functionality by managing RDHI of ICAs. Also, the RDHI is a separate entity maintained outside ICA processing so that a system wide implementation is provided.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that any, or all, ICAs are user configurable for being tracked to automatically determine redundancy. The user controls which types of ICAs to monitor, when to monitor ICAs, and how to monitor lCAs for redundancy.